One year ago, German cybersecurity expert Ralph Langner announced that he had found a computer worm designed to sabotage a nuclear facility in Iran. It's called Stuxnet, and it was the most sophisticated worm Langner had ever seen.

In the year since, Stuxnet has been analyzed as a cyber-superweapon, one so dangerous it might even harm those who created it.

In the summer of 2010, Langner and his partners went to work analyzing a malicious software program that was turning up in some equipment. Langner Communications is a small firm in Hamburg, Germany, but Langner and the two engineers with whom he works know a lot about industrial control systems. What they found in Stuxnet left them flabbergasted.

"I'm in this business for 20 years, and what we saw in the lab when analyzing Stuxnet was far beyond everything we had ever imagined," Langner says.

It was a worm that could burrow its way into an industrial control system, the kind of system used in power plants, refineries and nuclear stations. Amazingly, it ignored everything it found except the one piece of equipment it was seeking; when the worm reached its target, it would destroy it.

Langner says that the more his team analyzed the Stuxnet worm, the more they knew they were onto something big.

"We were pretty much working around the clock," he says, "because after we had the first impression of the magnitude of this, we were just like on speed or something like that. It was just impossible to go back to sleep."

Langner also realized after analyzing the Stuxnet code that it was designed to disable a particular nuclear facility in Iran. That's serious business, he figured. Some Iranian nuclear scientists, he remembered, had been mysteriously killed. Langner published his findings anyway.

"I wasn't actually scared, but this was just something I was thinking about," he says. "You know, this stuff must involve intelligence services who do some dirty work every now and then, and you can't just block that away from your personal situation when you are the guy who is the first to publish [that] this is a directed attack against the Iranian nuclear program. So there have been some frightening moments."

U.S. The Culprit?

Langner says as they dug deeper into the Stuxnet code, each new discovery left them more impressed and wondering what was coming next. He says he couldn't imagine who could have created the worm, and the level of expertise seemed almost alien. But that would be science fiction, and Stuxnet was a reality.

"Thinking about it for another minute, if it's not aliens, it's got to be the United States," he says.

The sophistication of the worm, plus the fact that the designer had inside intelligence on the Iranian facility, led Langner to conclude that the United States had developed Stuxnet, possibly with the help of Israeli intelligence.

Langner isn't shy about naming the U.S. as the Stuxnet culprit, as he stated in a recent speech at the Brookings Institution. In that speech, he also made the bigger point that having developed Stuxnet as a computer weapon, the United States has in effect introduced it into the world's cyber-arsenal.

"Cyberweapons proliferate by use, as we see in the case of Stuxnet," he said. "Several months or weeks or a year later, the code is available on the Internet for dissection by anyone who has the motivation or money to do so."

It would have to be revised, Langner says, in order to target some other industrial control system besides the one in Iran, a U.S. power plant, for example. But it could be done, and he warns that U.S. utility companies are not yet prepared to deal with the threat Stuxnet represents.

The CIA declined to comment on Langner's charge that the U.S. was "the leading force" behind Stuxnet. Homeland Security officials insist measures are being taken to defend U.S. infrastructure against cyberattack.

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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPileLast edited by gcmartin on Mon 26 Sep 2011, 18:02; edited 1 time in total

So this is tantamount to admitting that it is possible to design worms\virus that are able to slam planes into mountains. Well ok lets be less candid, into tall buildings two at a near time in central new york. Assassination by airplane crash was so common not long back that it was nearly predictable. And note who the prime suspects are. Just dont mention hilary and you are ok.
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Stuxnet can be directed at any operation using a specific control system... Which BTW, was recently adopted in a number of US nuclear facilities...
Stuxnet also showed up in Japan, and may have even played a part in Fukushima...
It can be easily adapted to a variety of "attack targets" and is incredibly stealthy in its methods of infiltration...
Objectively, it doesnt attack the system, it attacks its built in safety protocols... Thermal, Pressure, etc...
Nasty little bugger...
And it would take a Government worth of resources to develop...
Most evidence points to Israel as the creation point..
But probably a "joint" venture...
They wanted Iraq and Iran, (and probably N Korea and every other nuclear wanna be) to buy recooked rods from Fukushima instead of building their own breeder, which could be used to create weapon grade materials, IE Plutonium...
Look it up, our government sponsored the whole she-bang...

Not sure about the connection to plane crashes....
One smoking gun in that area:
The plant that hit the Pentagram.. Oh I mean, Pentagon, performed a turn, recorded on radar, at such G force, that a human pilot without a gee suit, would most likely have blacked out...
Of course, there are so many smoking guns there, it looks like a civil war re-inactment...
I was pleased to see the Toronto Hearings...
I hope they have an International Inquiry...
I have often wondered if German citizens during WW2 and American citizens today share a similar fate.
Did they know?? Do we know??
I am a Proud American.. I am proud of our people.. Of our original vision..
But our "founding fathers" warned us about exactly what is happening..
Our freedom is "owned"..
I believe in, and support, our ideals..
I do not believe in, but do, unfortunately, support, our current Government.. My taxes support the things they do.. My belief in my Country and its people, support their control..
Sorry... Did I get off track??

Yea, Stuxnet is just the first.. Probably a worse baddy is already circulating..
Geez, Kinda makes in house software seem a lot smarter...
Hard to target an unknown system...

@ Ron Brown... Example of their "Incidental Casualties" policies in action..
34 to 1 ratio... Sad...Last edited by puppyluvr on Mon 26 Sep 2011, 20:01; edited 1 time in total

A topic most aren't even aware of much less understand...what and why. is this mentioned.

aarf wrote:

... slam planes into mountains....

puppyluvr wrote:

... Not sure about the connection to plane crashes. ...

Ever wonder why Black Boxes are NOT public information after plane crashes?

Think.

Example
Anyone, other than myself, know what Airplane in the world is built to NOT crash under any circumstances?

If so, then what happened with Ron Brown, a US Cabinet member? This is NOT a theory. Look for yourself. What plane was he on? How on earth could it happen when that Airplane over-rides everything and everyone to insure crashes cannot occur? This is one of the big planes that can accelerate straight up if necessary. This is no theory. You cannot crash that plane! You can land it, but it will NOT CRASH.... unless .... Even the pilot cannot override its crash protection. Once that plane is 1 meter off the ground, it will not crash unless it runs out of fuel. So, since it had fuel, what???

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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPileLast edited by gcmartin on Mon 26 Sep 2011, 20:22; edited 3 times in total

Hint
Nothing to do with airplanes, but getting back to weaponry; the weapon, in the opening thread, had to have been developed long before Stixnet. Why you would ask? In order to be able to do that, there had to be a common denominator.

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Hello,
Nah, it is just the fact that Linux users, and especially Puppy users, tend to be a group that thinks "outside the box"..
Just a bit more open minded is all... _________________Close the Windows, and open your eyes, to a whole new world
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"Conspiracy Theorist" - a term that originated in US for those who share an account of an incident that differs from the government's account.

This term should have raised eyelids of every citizen as it intents to discredit the information that is shared. When this occurs, it meets the objective of discouraging at least half of those who would otherwise look at what's presented. Educated peoples should do just the opposite....they should go look for themselves, whenever anyone uses that term.

By this very definition and behavior, Einstein would have been labeled this had the term existed back then. So would Galileo. So would Darwin, So would JC, so would ... But, then again, they were labeled, weren't they.

This thread intends to share a use of technology that was discovered quite by accident. And, investigated. Since it doesn't have a Government endorsement or acknowledgement, then is it a conspiracy or was this a mere technological accident that just happened to involve millions of systems?

Thoughts by all of us are necessary as we take steps to try to combat the potential for impact in your immediate domain._________________Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
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3 Different Puppy Search Enginesor use DogPileLast edited by gcmartin on Tue 27 Sep 2011, 09:44; edited 3 times in total

In the 1930's and 40's...
Some ["conspiracy theorists"?] were saying that the Nazis were mass-killing in concentration camps.
Members of the Polish underground sent photos of naked people made ready for killing, to the British intelligence authorities.

This was discussed in the UK at the highest levels during WW2.
It was being requested that the camps be bombed so as to destroy their ability for industrialized extermination.
But senior individuals [of a certain bent] steadfastly refused to believe it...
[Perhaps they secretly agreed with the activity.]
And so NOTHING was done.
And the exterminations continued.

There are always those who steadfastly refuse to see.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
"Let those who have ears listen."
"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Hello,
A theory ceases to be just a theory in the face of hard evidence, of the fact...
Funny how people can be convinced to ignore undeniable evidence, if you just link it to the "lunatic fringe"..

Not Theory:
Only 3 steel framed buildings in history, have ever collapsed due to fire..
Even though many have burned over a much wider area, for up to 8 times longer... Thermite was found in the WTC dust, as were several by-products of its reaction with iron..

As for my earlier comments, and relation to the concentration camp statements above....
They have built them here...
Not theory.. Easily researched..The Army paperwork is available on the net.. Halliburton has made big bucks... Its all out in the open...

Why arent people screaming and running around like the proverbial "chickens with their heads cut off"???

Dont wanna be labeled a "nut"????
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